aaamusic | On 04, Oct 2010

Where do I begin? Crestfallen are, as a musical entity, somewhat difficult to pin down. Not quite the screamo emo metal, too death metal to be proper metalcore, and yet not entirely deathcore and spattered with some hardcore punk blood. What the listener is handed in ‘Cities On The Edge Of Forever’ appears to be a competition between a group of metalheads as to who can do things the loudest and most abrasively. 90% of this EP feels like it has been mixed in a cement mixer, and the other 10% suffers from the regrettable obsession metalcore  has with splicing a “tuneful”, clean vocals chorus into an otherwise brutal song to prove a point I can’t quite grasp.

The opener, ‘The Truth Will Set You Free’ is two minutes of atmospherics and spoken word. Given the niche appeal of the death growl, this tracks may well be in place to give any laymen a walk through what Crestfallen are trying to say. Otherwise, it feels rather surplus to requirements, as giving what is essentially a five-song EP an intro track can feel gratuitous. And then, with a buildup of ambient noise, we are thrown straight into what isn’t so much the deep end as a bottomless chasm as ‘Elysium Plateau’ blasts out savage metallic riffs with absolutely no compromise of indeed any subtlety. Crestfallen play loud and they play fast, blending together metal’s volume, death metal vocals and guttural riffs, and hardcore punk’s violent speed in what is a heavier, grittier and overall much more abrasive breed of metalcore. However, there is an emo bent to the melodic structure that is almost Aiden-esque in places, leading to a generic screamo metalcore chorus with plaintive clean vocals, before we are plunged back into the deathly sludge-screamo of the verse, completely with torrential cymbals and a discordant guitar break.

‘Behold A Pale Horse’ feels much like a Cancer Bats track, with metallic styles surrounding a savage hardcore moshpit song. The reverb on the drums (when audible over the dominant guitar torrent) is spot-on, as is the drumming itself. In fact, if it wasn’t for the irritating clean-vocal soaring-guitars bleeding-heart moments, I think that this track would bear a truly disconcerting resemblance to Cancer Bats, and in all honesty be all the better for it. A similar affliction blights ‘The Essence’, as a slow determined roar in the verse vocals sprawls over some phenomenally heavy riffs, however the chorus collapses to saccharine auto-tuned vocals that feel like Panic! At The Disco have got their recordings mixed into Crestfallen’s songs by accident. Blistering maelstroms of distortion and speed-drumming are cramped painfully by the use of such jarring oddities.

I would volunteer ‘Disclosure’ as the best track on offer as it throws in a subversion of dance sounds in an incredibly swampy intro, and the pre-chorus is an arrhythmic yet tight beauty. However, the chorus is still awkward, the growling clashing with the alt-rock guitarwork, and the instrumental and bridge is perhaps even worse in this respect as it dumps a steaming heap of 30 Seconds To Mars-isms in an otherwise impressive track, however the avalanche of seething menace held within the rest of the song makes up for this and culminates in some impressive sonic impact.

As for closing track ‘The Tether Incident’, it feels like a rehashed Escape The Fate single, plain and simple.

Overall, I would say that although they aren’t exactly the worst band on the scene, Crestfallen are lacking in a certain appeal. The choice to combine some blood-and-thunder death growls with what passes as “hardcore” these days requires guts and effort, but the two halves of the sound seem irreconcilable despite their best efforts.

Author: Katie H-Halinski